The Challenge Of Modern Freedom

MyLife Essay Contest

A

Saul Bellow wrote that “the challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up.” For Bellow, “the danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature.” For others, the challenge of making one’s self up is so paralyzing that the freedom serving up the challenge simply implodes beneath it. People deliberate the critical and trivial decisions of their lives not solely on the merits, but in terms of which option will best contribute to the person they are molding. Careers, love interests and even what book to read next, become choices which inform the character being created. A wrong decision does not merely imply living with the negative consequences – long hours, a tense marriage or dull reading – but an irreversible brush stroke that renders them uninspired disillusioned or not sufficiently well-read. Following Bellow, I will hereafter refer to this phenomenon as the challenge of modern freedom.

To be sure, many a self-help group has capitalized on this sentiment. And this phenomenon is not new. “Live in the Moment” is an all-too-familiar cliché. One suspects a certain self-defeating trap in this approach. An effort to live in the moment quickly becomes an effort to be someone who lives in the moment.

But aside from the effectiveness of the “live in the moment” approach, there exists a more terrifying concern. What is achieved by living such a life? Ethically, one wonders whether such a life is well lived. But beyond the ethics, abandoning any sort of objective or achievement seems akin to running headlong right off a precipice. “Oh yeah! Life goes on long after the thrill of livin’ is gone” as John Mellencamp reminds us, and what then?

In this essay, I will suggest that a central theme of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi’s (the Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch) thought offers a unique solution to the challenge of modern freedom. While this may be stating the obvious, it is important to note that the Alter Rebbe’s concern was not Bellow’s; far from it. R’ Shneur Zalman’s objective was to suggest a framework for Jewish observance and devotion to God. Moreover, R’ Shneur Zalman’s thesis is mesmerizing when read in its intended context and only properly understood while adopting a Hassidic hermeneutic. I will therefore begin by simply presenting and elucidating two sermons in which the relevant thesis is explicated. By way of conclusion, I will then suggest how that central theme can be extrapolated to the challenge of modern freedom.

B

Rabbi Shneur Zalman begins a sermon (transcribed in Torah Or) on the story in which Judah approaches Joseph to plead for Benjamin’s freedom with a contrast between the desert Tabernacle and the Temple of Jerusalem (based on the classic rabbinic association of the Tabernacle with Joseph and the Temple with Judah). The Tabernacle was built upon the ground with wooden pillars and covered with animal skins, whilst the Temple was built from stone, with wood beams used only as support. The structure of the Tabernacle correlates with the well known hierarchy of the material world, with inanimate objects at the bottom (the dirt), plant life above them (the wooden beams built from trees) and the animal kingdom above them both (the animal skin covers). The stone Temple, on the other hand, appears to give prominence to the inanimate stones, commonly assumed to be of a lower caliber. And yet, the Temple is assumed to be holier than the Tabernacle.

The Talmud (Hagigah 13b) cites a dispute as to whether the heavens were created before the earth or vice versa. Both opinions are eventually assumed to be correct, since each is based on a supporting verse. The verse “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” implies that the heavens preceded the earth, while the verse “on the day the God Hashem made earth and heavens” implies the opposite. The Talmud explains how the two opinions can coexist by referencing the notion of kah ala bemahshava, “so it arose in intent”. The Alter Rebbe explains that the notion of kah ala bemahshava simply means that one generally first conceives of an objective and subsequently devises a strategy for obtaining that objective. In practice however, when the strategy is implemented, the objective is reached only at the end of process.

The earth, claims Rabbi Shneur Zalman, was God’s objective. But to arrive at the earth, God first needed to create the heavens. At this point in the sermon, the central paradigm is introduced.

For the infinite God to have a finite world, the light of God’s infinite essence had to descend through multiple worlds of existence (the four worlds of Atzilut, Briah, Yeztira and Assiya). At each level of descent, the world that is brought into being by the light of the infinite God is farther and farther removed from the infinite essence of God from which that light emanated. Therefore in one sense, the higher one is in the emanation chain, the closer one is to the essence of God. And, where emanation is concerned, the heavens precede the earth. In this sense, the classic hierarchy of man, life, plants and inanimate objects holds, since life is of a higher order on the chain of emanation than inanimate rocks. And it is this hierarchal structure that is represented in the structure of the Tabernacle.

But that is not the end of the story; Rabbi Shneur Zalman suggests that as high as one goes up the chain of emanation, the possibilities remain bounded. Someone may be capable of transcending the world in which he or she finds himself, but even the highest worlds in existence are finite. Ultimately every existing being will reach a finite limit to its transcendental capacity.

There does exist, however, an alternative approach. Not one of transcendence but of bitul, of nullification. By nullifying one’s self in deference to the infinite essence of God, before which the whole world is non-existent, one can integrate with God’s infinity. The integration of man with God through self nullification is asymptotic, unbounded and limitless.

From the perspective of self-nullification, the inanimate earth itself symbolizes the ultimate objective. The earth in its simplicity and subservience to everything above it was God’s first intent “on the day the God Hashem made earth and heaven”. The stones of the everlasting Temple signify the unbounded world order.

One who accomplishes this kind of self-nullification becomes what the Alter Rebbe refers to, based on a verse in Proverbs, as a “lady of valor, her husband’s crown”. In other words, a person has the capacity to subject himself to the will of God to the point where his or her own existence melts away and he or she becomes, as it were, a crown to the infinite G-d.

The two approaches are represented by Joseph, on the one hand, and Judah on the other. The name Joseph stems from the Hebrew word to increase. Joseph himself was a man who “made himself up” perfectly by rising above his station as an incarcerated slave to become the viceroy of Egypt. The name Judah on the other hand comes from the word for thanksgiving, an act whose basic nature is the acknowledgment of one’s dependency on another.

It is critical to note that Joseph and Judah, while often at odds, are destined to mutually co-exist. God tells Ezekiel (in passages typically read together with the Judah and Joseph stories) to take two sticks. On one stick Ezekiel is to write the word Judah, and on the other Ephraim (the son of Joseph). Ezekiel is then instructed to place the stick of Judah upon the stick of Joseph and the two sticks become one. Judah’s stick is placed on top to show its superior, infinite standing. Joseph’s stick however is not abandoned.

C

The opening sermon to the book of Numbers (transcribed in Likutei Torah) addresses the command to “raise the heads of the children of Israel” given to Moses in the ohel moed (a term for the Tabernacle). The Alter Rebbe reads the term “head” as referring to ones immaterial mind or soul. Just as one’s material mind produces a will, so to one’s soul produces a will. Two sorts of wills are produced by one’s soul – a higher will and a lower will. The lower will of each soul is the force through which one contemplates the greatness of God, each person with his or her unique capacity and potential. Rabbi Shneur Zalman cites a passage from the Book of Zohar that states in connection with the verse from Proverbs “her husband is renowned at the gates”, “each person to the degree contemplated in his heart”. The Zohar takes the husband to refer to God, who is known by each individual at the “gates” of his or her heart, only to the extent such person contemplates and meditates on Him. This sort of activity is bounded. Perhaps, some people attain higher degrees of knowledge of God either through increased effort or greater innate potential. Ultimately, however, the will of a person is finite and even the greatest most expansive soul cannot come to know the true essence of the infinite God fully – let mahshava tephisa bei klal.

But there is an upper will. The upper will can integrate fully with the will of God, through the process described already by the Tanaaim of aseh rezono rezonha – make his will your will. The Alter Rebbe describes this process as a kind of Exodus from Egypt. The Hebrew word for Egypt is Mizraim, which comes from the term narrow or confined. The process of merging one’s will with the will of God entails a redemption from the bounded potential of the finite universe.

The Alter Rebbe understands the notion of “raising the heads of the children of Israel” as a command to elevate the soul such that the upper will merges with the will of God through a process of aseh rezono rezonha.

The terms nodati (נודעתי) and noaditi (נועדתי) in Hebrew have the exact same letters, but represent the two parallel forms of religious devotion described above. The term nodati means to know; knowledge is a product of contemplation and meditation achieved by the lower will. The term noaditi describes revelation – a state that is achieved by merging one’s will with the will of G-d.

Here the Alter Rebbe introduces the ohel moed. The term noaditi is the term used to describe God’s revelation in the ohel moed. The Alter Rebbe explains that two groups were tasked with administering the ohel moed. The Levites were placed in charge of carrying the parts of the Tabernacle and erecting it. This represents the lower will – a familiar knowledge of God’s universe, where each piece belongs and how it is constructed. The Levites knew exactly what was inside the ohel moed since they were responsible for transporting each holly vessel. But they never entered into Gods house. That honor was left for the priests and for Moses. Only one who enters God’s space and submits his or her will fully to that of God can transcend finite knowledge (nodati) and achieve infinite revelation (noaditi).

D

We have ventured a long way from the challenge of modern freedom. To see how the sermons above offer a solution to the challenge, I will first attempt to recast the Alter Rebbe’s central theme, as I understand it, in more contemporary language. The cornerstone of these sermons is that a person can approach life either through self-actualization or self-nullification.

Self actualization entails building the best possible person one is capable of constructing. The Alter Rebbe speaks in terms of knowing God. But we may expand this to any number of qualities or accomplishments that render a life well lived – ethical, intellectual, professional, or educational. The process of self-actualization is essentially the challenge of making one’s self up. This approach is represented in Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s sermons by Joseph, the Tabernacle, Egypt and the Levites. It belongs to a world order in which the heavens outrank the earth; and, the men who reach for them outshine those who do not. But that world order is finite and the process of self-actualization is necessarily bounded. One can only soar so high until his waxen wings melt like those of Icarus.

On the other hand, the possibilities of self-nullification are limitless. The very notion of self-nullification can have a dangerous, perhaps depressive, connotation. But in the sermons of the Alter Rebbe it is not realized by beating one’s chest and declaring “I am nothing! I am nothing!”. Self-nullification or bittul is a process of merging with something greater than oneself, something infinite. For the Alter Rebbe, and for any devoted man of religion, the infinite being is the true essence of God. But for others it could be the great ideals of civilization – justice, liberty or freedom. By committing utterly to something immaterial and limitless a person transcends the straights of finitude and becomes one with the infinite, the everlasting, the eternal. For Rabbi Shneur Zalman this approach is captured by Judah, the eternal Temple, the lady of valor and the holy priests. The world order is the one first intended by God, where the trodden upon earth is preceded the heavens.

It is critical to note that in the Alter Rebbe’s conception the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Rabbi Shneur Zalman refers to the coexistence of self-actualization and self-nullification multiple times in both sermons. A person should not embrace the path of self nullification exclusively based on the seeming advantage of infinity over finitude. As an independent person inhabiting a finite world, one must try to grow as a human being, a parent, a friend. In short one cannot abandon the mandate to “make one’s self up.”

But, at the same time, one need not despair of finitude. While struggling with the challenge of modern freedom, one can also integrate into something greater than themselves, something beyond not only their own potential, but beyond the confines of the finite universe itself. I would suggest that a great deal of the anxiety that is brought to bear by the challenge of modern freedom is borne of the finitude itself. Every choice precludes another. In a finite universe, one’s position in time and space is always in contrast to another possible position, and one can never occupy each point in space-time simultaneously. The challenge of charting a path for growth and implementing it is not easily abandoned. But it also does not need to encompass the entirety of one’s existence. After a day’s toil with the challenge of modern freedom, one can submit to the greater, endless possibilities of the universe, and perhaps even beyond.

About the Author:

Menachem Danishefsky is a 9th generation einicle of the Alter Rebbe. Menachem’s mother, Odelia Danishefsky (nee’ Schneerson) is a descendant of the Mittler Rebbe’s renowned daughter, Menucha Rachel, who immigrated to Chevron in the first part of the 19th century. The building which was once the hotel of the Schneerson family in Chevron, Beit Schneerson, can still be seen today. Menachem is originally from Bergenfield, NJ, but trained as a lawyer in Israel. Menachem practiced tax law at the Tel Aviv based firm of Herzog, Fox and Neeman. Recently, Menachem relocted with his family to the US, and currently practices tax law in New York.